Healthy Habit: Rich in tradition and good food, Greek Food Festival returns to St. John’s

Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004 | 8:16 a.m.

Writing about the Annual Greek Food Festival has become for me a delicious habit. A bit of reminiscing is called for here.

In the beginning St. John's Greek Orthodox Church was a small place of worship with a large dream. The fast-growing Greek Community, passionate and determined, wanted a complete facility that would "serve our community and youth for generations to come."

Las Vegas was much smaller in those early days a small, friendly town where everyone knew their neighbors. Then as now the Greek Food Festival was a labor of love. In the Greek community, young and old joined forces to do whatever had to be done to raise the money to buy the land and to build the first phase of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church.

For many years the Sahara Space Center provided the humongous space needed for the festival. Just as it does now, the Greek community cooked every bit of the food and desserts that were sold at the festival.

For two days the Space Center became a Greek marketplace complete with traditional food and drink, music and dancing, where everyone celebrated the glory of Greece. The festivities began in the morning and continued until late evening. They still do. The number of days have increased. This 32nd year includes four days of feasting and revelry.

This is the primary fund-raiser for St. John's. Proceeds from the festival will support the beautiful new Community and Education Center.

"Last year was our first festival with the resources that our new Community and Education Center provides us, and it was our best year ever," said St. John's President Gus Flangas, chairman of this year's festival. "Being Greek is as much a state of mind as it is a nationality.

"It is having a history nearly as old as life itself."

Watching the torchbearer run up the staircase to light the flame at the 2004 Summer Olympics was thrilling. A re-enactment of the historic lighting will kick off the festival. The light will burn for four days.

Who will light the torch? The winner of the second annual Marathon and Torch Lighting. The final torch winner will be a surprise and will be a prominent member of the Greek community.

Last year's inaugural run was Angelo Stamis and George Filios, who together lit the torch.

Food is always in great abundance at any Greek festival. Succulent lamb, souvlaki, pastitsio (Greek lasagna), calamari, domathes (stuffed grape leaves), Greek salad and so many other dishes, as well as those amazing Greek pastries, will be offered.

I've watched the changes taking place in the pastries as the younger women replaced pistachio nuts with chocolate chips and took other liberties with the classics.

Decadent? No, delicious. No matter what the changes, the desserts are delectable.

One of my favorite Greek cookbooks, "The Foods of the Greek Islands," by Aglaia Kremezi (Houghton Mifflin, $35), describes the sharing of food whenever a family or friends gather around the table as being typical of the traditional Greek way of life.

Kremezi describes a communal meal as beginning with alcoholic drinks followed by meze, little plates of food similar to Spanish tapas.

Food is shared and "the quickest fork" gets the most bites.

No need to worry about "the quickest fork" at the 32nd Annual Greek Food Festival. There is plenty of food for everyone.

There's also plenty to keep parents and their kids busy. A children's entertainment area will keep the kids happy.

Shoppers will find Greek gifts, art, clothing and jewelry, and two live bands will provide plenty of dancing music.

OPA!